CareForKids.com.au Childcare Scraper

Scrape Australia's largest childcare directory: long day care, family day care, preschool, occasional care, before-school, after-school, and vacation care services. Returns full centre profiles with name, address, GPS, phone, daily fees, NQS rating, parent ratings, vacancies by day-of-week, age-group fee bands, services and features, gallery images, contact name and hours, social URLs, provider group, and the official ACECQA service approval number.

Why this scraper

• 45+ fields per centre, including precise GPS, phone, full fee table by age band, vacancy schedule per day-of-week, NQS quality area ratings (all 7 areas), gallery images, parent reviews, and the ACECQA service approval number.
• Two input modes: Search builder (suburbs + postcodes + care types) or URL paste (any careforkids.com.au URL). Add the reviewsOnly toggle to flip the output shape from one row per centre to one row per parent review.
• Multi care-type fan-out: pick ["longdaycare", "preschool"] and the scraper runs both for every suburb you list.
• Detail enrichment optional: SERP cards already carry 25+ fields; flip fetchDetails ON for the full provider profile + top 10 parent reviews.
• Datacenter-friendly: works on the free Apify plan with the default Datacenter proxy; residential AU is optional for higher volume.
• Single SERP per locality: each suburb + postcode page returns every centre in that postcode (typically 5 to 50). No pagination to walk.

Data You Get

Sample shape, values are illustrative placeholders, not from a live listing.

Field	Example
id	00000
url	https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00000/sample-centre-suburb-2000
name	Sample Childcare Centre
suburb	Sample Suburb
postcode	2000
state	NSW
address	Sample Address, Sample Suburb, NSW
latitude	-33.0000
longitude	151.0000
phone	+61200000000
rating	4.5
reviewCount	0
dailyFee	200
hasVacancies	true
isVerified	true
listingType	Premium
careTypes	["Long Day Care", "Preschool"]
requestedCareType	longdaycare
services	["Meals Provided", "Nappies & Wipes Supplied", "SunSmart Aware"]
nqsRating	Meeting
hoursSummary	7:30am to 6:00pm
logoUrl	https://img-service-cdn-...azurewebsites.net/api/img?type=UserPhoto&id=0
description	Full provider description text appears here when fetchDetails=true.
contactName	Sample Contact, Director
contactTime	7:30am to 6:00pm
websiteUrl	https://www.example.com/sample-centre
facebookUrl	https://www.facebook.com/sample
instagramUrl	https://www.instagram.com/sample
serviceApprovalNumber	SE-00000000
approvedPlaces	90
nqsRatingOverall	Meeting
nqsRatingLabel	Meeting National Quality Standard
nqsAreaRatings	["Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS", ...] (7 areas)
providerGroup	Sample Provider Group
googlePlaceId	ChIJ0000000000
galleryImageUrls	[...image URLs...]
feeGroups	[{careType: "Long Day Care", fees: [{fromYears, toYears, maxPrice, ...}]}]
vacancies	[{careType, ageGroup, daysOfWeek: [bool x 7], ...}]
highlights	Pipe-separated highlight bullets
hasWaitlist	false
dailyAverageFee	200
ratingC4k / ratingGoogle	4.5 / 4.8
reviewCountC4k / reviewCountGoogle	0 / 0
scrapedAt	2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

How to Use

Search by suburb + postcode

{
  "mode": "search",
  "locations": [
    { "suburb": "Sydney", "postcode": "2000" }
  ],
  "careTypes": ["all"],
  "fetchDetails": false,
  "maxListings": 50
}

Search multiple suburbs and care types

{
  "mode": "search",
  "locations": [
    { "suburb": "Surry Hills", "postcode": "2010" },
    { "suburb": "Bondi", "postcode": "2026" },
    { "suburb": "Manly", "postcode": "2095" }
  ],
  "careTypes": ["longdaycare", "preschool"],
  "vacanciesOnly": true,
  "fetchDetails": true
}

URL mode (paste any careforkids URL)

{
  "mode": "url",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/sydney/2000",
    "https://www.careforkids.com.au/family-day-care/melbourne/3000",
    "https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00000/sample-centre-detail-page"
  ],
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Detail-only single fetch

{
  "mode": "url",
  "urls": ["https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00000/sample-centre-suburb-2000"],
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "maxListings": 1
}

Reviews-only output (one record per parent review)

Set reviewsOnly: true and the dataset becomes ONE row per review (reviewer name, rating, date, full text, source, avatar URL) with centre context fields (centreId, centreName, suburb, postcode, state, GPS) attached to each row. The site renders the top 10 reviews in the SSR HTML. Pairs with either Search or URL mode.

{
  "mode": "search",
  "locations": [{ "suburb": "Sydney", "postcode": "2000" }],
  "careTypes": ["all"],
  "reviewsOnly": true,
  "maxListings": 50,
  "maxReviewsPerCentre": 10
}

Or pull reviews for specific centres via URL list:

{
  "mode": "url",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00000/sample-centre-a-suburb-2000",
    "https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00001/sample-centre-b-suburb-2010"
  ],
  "reviewsOnly": true,
  "maxReviewsPerCentre": 10
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search builds URLs from locations and careTypes; url passes through urls directly.
reviewsOnly	boolean	false	When ON, emit one row per parent review instead of one per centre. Forces detail-page fetch internally. Pairs with either Search or URL mode.
locations	array	Sydney 2000	Each entry is { "suburb": "...", "postcode": "0000" }. Suburb name is slugified automatically. Multiple locations supported.
careTypes	array	["all"]	Service types to search. all fetches every type at once. Multi-select supported: each (location × type) becomes a separate fetch.
verifiedOnly	boolean	false	Drop centres not flagged as verified by careforkids.com.au.
vacanciesOnly	boolean	false	Drop centres reporting no current vacancies.
minRating	integer	(off)	Minimum 1-5 parent rating. Centres without a rating are kept.
maxDailyFee	integer	(off)	Maximum advertised average daily fee in AUD. Centres without an advertised fee are kept.
urls	array	(one example)	URL mode only. Paste any careforkids.com.au URL: search SERP, care-type-filtered SERP, or single-centre detail page.
maxListings	integer	0 (no cap)	Hard cap across all searches.
fetchDetails	boolean	false	When ON, fetch each centre's profile page for description, full fee schedule by age band, vacancy schedule per day, NQS area ratings, gallery, contact name + hours, website + socials, ACECQA service approval number, and top 10 parent reviews.
maxReviewsPerCentre	integer	0 (no cap)	Reviews mode only. Cap reviews emitted per centre. The site renders the top 10 in SSR; setting above 10 has no effect.
proxy	object	Apify Datacenter	Free plans get the default Datacenter group. For higher volume, switch to groups: ["RESIDENTIAL"], country: "AU".

Output Example

Sample shape, values are illustrative placeholders, not from a live listing.

{
  "id": "00000",
  "url": "https://www.careforkids.com.au/child-care/00000/sample-centre-suburb-2000",
  "name": "Sample Childcare Centre",
  "suburb": "Sample Suburb",
  "postcode": "2000",
  "state": "NSW",
  "address": "Sample Address, Sample Suburb, NSW",
  "latitude": -33.0000,
  "longitude": 151.0000,
  "phone": "+61200000000",
  "rating": 4.5,
  "reviewCount": 0,
  "dailyFee": 200,
  "hasVacancies": true,
  "isVerified": true,
  "listingType": "Premium",
  "careTypes": ["Long Day Care"],
  "requestedCareType": "longdaycare",
  "services": ["Meals Provided", "Nappies & Wipes Supplied"],
  "nqsRating": "Meeting",
  "nqsRatingOverall": "Meeting",
  "nqsRatingLabel": "Meeting National Quality Standard",
  "nqsAreaRatings": [
    "Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS",
    "Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS", "Meeting NQS"
  ],
  "providerGroup": "Sample Provider Group",
  "googlePlaceId": "ChIJ0000000000",
  "logoUrl": "https://img-service-cdn-h2avfjg4bcb8a0gw.australiaeast-01.azurewebsites.net/api/img?type=UserPhoto&id=0",
  "galleryImageUrls": [
    "https://img-service-cdn-h2avfjg4bcb8a0gw.australiaeast-01.azurewebsites.net/api/img?type=UserImage&id=00001",
    "https://img-service-cdn-h2avfjg4bcb8a0gw.australiaeast-01.azurewebsites.net/api/img?type=UserImage&id=00002"
  ],
  "feeGroups": [
    {
      "careType": "Long Day Care",
      "fees": [
        { "fromWeeks": 6, "toYears": 2, "maxPrice": 200, "feeTypeDisplay": "/day" },
        { "fromYears": 2, "toYears": 5, "maxPrice": 200, "feeTypeDisplay": "/day" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "vacancies": [
    {
      "careType": "Long Day Care",
      "ageGroup": "6 wks to 2 yrs",
      "ageGroupLabel": "Babies",
      "daysOfWeek": [false, true, true, true, true, true, false]
    }
  ],
  "serviceExtras": [
    { "id": 1, "name": "Allergy & Anaphylaxis Aware", "iconId": "allergy-aware" }
  ],
  "highlights": "Sample highlight bullet|Another sample bullet|Final sample bullet",
  "hasWaitlist": false,
  "dailyAverageFee": 200,
  "approvedPlaces": 90,
  "serviceApprovalNumber": "SE-00000000",
  "contactName": "Sample Contact, Director",
  "contactTime": "7:30am to 6:00pm",
  "websiteUrl": "https://www.example.com/sample",
  "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/sample",
  "instagramUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/sample",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Plan Requirement

• Free plan: works with the default Apify Datacenter proxy (no group). Most suburbs return all centres on the first request.
• Starter and above: switch to residential AU (groups: ["RESIDENTIAL"], country: "AU") for stable rotation under high volume or repeated runs.
• Geo: the source is Australia-only. Datacenter US works for the directory pages because the upstream edge accepts a warmed cookie session.